May 3, 2007

Industrial Accident?

Let's pretend you're the guy giving the quote on accident liability insurance for this building site.

Would you consider this an ingenious solution to an obstacle in the way of your scaffolding, or do you consider this one well placed stumble over the end of the plank away from a few tonnes of scaffolding and building material going straight through a corrugated iron roof into the hut below?

March 1, 2006

Someone is letting your house!

In September 2005, the South African actuality programme Carte Blanche ran a story about squattors moving into empty properties and taking up residence, without the landowners knowledge or permission.

The squattors usually get there through bogus "letting agents". These people somehow gain keys to the vacant property, and then place an advert in the local newspaper, advertising for interested tenants. Tenants duly arrive, and pay a deposit and rent to the "agent", never to be seen again.

This last week a would be scammer tried that on my property in Cape Town. The trouble was, not only did the neighbour send email to warn that people were being shown around the property, but the real letting agents, Trafalgar Property Management, saw the fraudster's advert for the property in the newspaper.

Posing as an interested potential tenant, the real letting agent made an appointment with the fake letting agent to be shown around the house. When the fraudster arrived, they were promptly arrested by police and are currently in jail awaiting trial for fraud.

December 29, 2005

Mastercard: Web and Marketing need to chat.

Ding ding ding.

Mastercard's South African website team and the marketing team are sorely in need of some liaison.

Mastercard's marketing people are currently spending a lot of money on a television campaign promoting a competition for a ZAR100 000 holiday, where you enter online. Nobody told their website team though. Their website has said "The page you have requested is unavailable at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later." for the last few days.

December 27, 2005

Get your Ofni here!

October 20, 2005

The Plug and the Cupboard

Ever felt the need to install a power socket in a cupboard for those little conveniences, like a place to plug in the alarm system, or the place to plug in the ethernet switch that feeds the apartment?